Daniel Penny’s sister and childhood friend pleaded his case to jurors at his manslaughter trial Monday — describing the former Marine as a “calm and peaceful” surfing buff who earned a reputation for honesty in their tight-knit Long Island hometown.
“People always spoke so highly of him,” Alexandra Fay, who grew up on the same block as Penny in beachside West Islip, told Manhattan jurors of her one-time neighbor, who is charged with “recklessly” choking homeless man Jordan Neely to death on a subway train last May.
“He was so kind. If anything he was extra kind … He always spoke up,” Fay added, grinning in the direction of Penny, 26, who sat at the defense table in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Penny’s older sister, Jacqueline Penny, entered the courtroom smiling as well, before describing her brother as a “smart” and “focused” student who played the upright bass in their high school orchestra, starred on the lacrosse team and “likes to surf as a hobby.”
“We had similar friends, similar friend groups, hung out with similar people,” testified Jacqueline, who goes by “Jackie,” and who was the first witness called by the defense after prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office rested their case Monday afternoon.
“He was always very sweet to my friends and I was friendly with his friends as well,” she said.
Daniel Penny also has a reputation within their family of being an “honest” and “calm and peaceful person,” his sister said.
At the end of her stint on the stand, which lasted just 15 minutes, Jackie Penny was asked by her brother’s defense lawyer, Thomas Kenniff, “Do you not want to see anything bad happen to your brother?”
“Yes,” she replied.
“Is that why you’re testifying?” Kenniff continued.
“Yes,” Jackie Penny answered.
Kenniff also asked Penny’s sister and childhood friend whether they were surprised that Daniel enlisted to join the Marines after high school.
“A little, because he was a very calm, soft-spirited person,” his sister told jurors, before adding that “it wasn’t completely surprising,” because “he was always patriotic, and men in our family served.”
Fay, Penny’s former neighbor in West Islip, described the Suffolk County hamlet as a “really small town where everyone knows each other.
“We call it the little ‘West Islip bubble,’” she said.
Fay acknowledged during a brief cross-examination that she contributed to Penny’s legal defense fund, which has raised more than $3 million — but the judge scrubbed the part of the exchange where prosecutors mentioned the massive sum from the record.
Penny’s team called their first two defense witnesses after the prosecution rested its case, which ended with three grueling days of testimony from Dr. Cynthia Harris, the city medical examiner who ruled that Penny’s chokehold caused Neely’s death.
Penny’s lawyers spent most of Monday trying to poke holes in Harris’ finding, which she said she made after reviewing viral video of the fatal May 1, 2023 encounter shot by a journalist who had witnessed the confrontation on the Manhattan F train.
Near the end of her time on the stand, Penny lawyer Steven Raiser raised his voice while questioning why Harris decided Neely’s cause of death before receiving a toxicology report, which found that he had the K2 synthetic cannabis in his system.
“Yeah, but I’ve also made a determination when someone’s been shot in the head that their cause of death was that they were shot in the head,” Harris quipped back.
“I wouldn’t wait for the toxicology results to determine that.”
Harris testified Friday that the video of the encounter so convincingly showed that Penny’s chokehold killed Neely that she would not change her opinion even if the homeless man had enough drugs in his system “to put down an elephant.”
Penny has pleaded not guilty to second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, and faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted on the top charge.
His lawyers argue that his actions were justified to subdue and restrain Neely, who witnesses have said was menacing and threatening passengers.
Prosecutors charge that Penny held Neely for far too long, including for more than five minutes after nearly all of the straphangers had left the subway car — and for 51 seconds after Neely’s body went limp.
The trial resumes Tuesday.
